


dark daughter (won't you stand by me?)

by SparkleMoose



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Patch 5.3: Reflections in Crystal Spoilers, Reincarnation, Vague BUT STILL SPOILERS, mentions of attempted murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:40:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26262808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SparkleMoose/pseuds/SparkleMoose
Summary: Emet-Selch offers this shard of his daughter a choice.Fleur reflects and comes to a decision.written for ffxivwrite2020's prompt sway.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	dark daughter (won't you stand by me?)

Fleur knows she is not the paragon of light her companions tend to see her as. She knows she is anything but pure, anything but righteous and right. She might have been those things once, as a child with loving parents but then again-

What kind of child plots the death of the one she blamed for the death of her parents? She had been twelve and grieving, orphaned and alone and the only thing that had mattered to her was the death of the man who had refused her parents medicine that would have cured them.

Fleur had clutched her fathers cards to her chest and prayed for the only time since the death of her family. She had prayed for revenge, to watch the life bleed from the eyes of the one she hated. Though her hands had trembled at the time, she knows now that her hands are steady and that with her fame, with the acclaim she has gathered she could kill him.

And yet she has no desire to. The desire for vengeance against the merchant had withered and died sometime during her stay with the Scions. She had come to them still angry that her attempt on his life had failed, Fleur had come to the Scions after a year in the Arcanist’s Guild after fleeing Ul’dah. Fleur had come to the Scions bitter and grieving and they had welcomed her.

She has no illusions that her time in the gangs that littered the streets of Ul’dah went unnoticed by Thancred’s eyes. Has no doubt that when they met Minfilia had Seen her past. The Echo is ever fickle and not even their glorious leader had mastered it.

So no, Fleur knows she is not the creature of light and purity that her friends think she is. She is tainted, more than many of them could ever be and still she desires their love. Their compassion. She has a family for the first time in the years and she will not let them go.

No matter what the man in front of her wants.

“I don’t care.” Fleur’s words are blunt, to the point and the Ascian’s face is emotionless as she watches him. “Whether or not I was your daughter doesn’t matter. I had parents. They’re dead now. Soon you’ll be counted among them.”

Emet-Selch barks a laugh.

“Still stubborn I see,” he muses, “No matter, your soul tells a different tale. You are used to power, used to lording it over others. Why not take what I offer?”

In his hands lie a soul stone, orange and brilliant.

A part of Fleur sees it and aches with want.

(She can’t help but notice the color matches that of her left eye.)

“Keep it.” Fleur meets his eyes. “Keep it. And keep whatever memories of what I once was as well, memories are all we have in the end.”

* * *

Later, she laughs at the irony of her words.

Oh, she had known her words the truth back then but now as she stares back out over the recreation of Amaurot her former father had made Fleur realizes that Emet had known the love and pain that memory brings all too well.


End file.
